3/01/2010

Week #8: Venus Williams defend back-to-back titles and gets 43rd WTA title.

One week after defending her title in Dubai, Venus Williams also defended her last year's title in Acapulco and got her 43rd career singles title. But this time the way to the title was more difficult, as she had to come back from a set down and from 5-1 down in the 3rd set to overcome Spanish Laura Pous in the quarters. Williams also dropped a set to Edina Gallovits in the semis and had to come back from a set down against Slovenian Polona Hercog in the final. This was first WTA final appearance for Hercog, who upsetted 2nd seed Agnes Szavay in the quarters and 5th seed Carla Suarez in the semis.

In Malaysia, upcoming Russian Alisa Kleybanova got her 1st WTA title as she defeated 1st seed and WTA #7 Elena Dementieva in her first WTA final appearance. On her way to the final, Kleybanova had to come back from a set down on her matches against Kudryavtseva and Rodionova, whereas Dementieva just dropped 15 games in 4 matches, but in the final Kleybanova played at high level and dismantled Dementieva. Sybille Bammer and Ayumi Morita completed the semis as 2nd and 3rd seeds Na Li and Jie Zheng suffered early exits.

Acapulco (MEX), International, $220,000
Final: Venus Williams (USA) def Polona Hercog (SLO) 2/6 6/2 6/3

Kuala Lumpur (MAL), International, $220,000
Final: Alisa Kleybanova (RUS) def Elena Dementieva (RUS) 6/3 6/2

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